Questionable field trips raise brows in Richmond Co.

Posted: Tuesday, December 15, 1998

By Faith JohnsonMorris News Service

AUGUSTA -- Principals claim the hundreds of field trips Richmond County students take each year are classroom-related, but school board members are making teachers explain what children can learn on visits to restaurants and amusement parks.

Analysis of a four-month activities list shows 208 trips to Family Connection, now called Community Partnership, a non-profit organization on Telfair Street that provides tutoring and after-school activities.

Another 58 field trips were to area museums, while students under teacher supervision took 20 trips to amusement parks, 23 to restaurants, 11 to grocery and department stores, nine to Augusta and Regency malls, two to the movies and one trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

While visiting the restaurants, students practiced their table etiquette or learned what goes on in commercial kitchens, school administrators said. Trips to supermarkets allowed students to study food groups. Trips to Atlanta's Six Flags Over Georgia were taken during math and science days at the theme park.

When the school board voted Feb. 12 to stop charging individual schools a $35 fee for local field trips, schools' requests for trips more than doubled, said Michael Shinn, transportation director for Richmond County's school district.

The request caused the district to spend more on transportation and the increased bus use prompted Shinn to compile a list of trips for school administrators. The activities list includes trips during and after school from March through June.

The school board sets aside about $150,000 a year to pay bus drivers to take students on trips to extracurricular events. But last year, the school system's transportation department spent thousands over its budget, officials said.

''I can't crank up a bus and drive it anywhere without it costing money and someone's got to pay for it,'' Shinn said. ''If I had enough money, I would take them anywhere they need to go. But there are limitations.''

The school board recently divided $80,000 among the county's 57 public schools to pay for field trips. The money was awarded based on student population.

The board established the fund last month to help schools pay the $20 per-trip fee that's now being charged to use school buses. And while trips to museums, zoos and libraries are encouraged, trips to restaurants, amusement parks and beaches must be approved in advance by school system administrators.

''We are working on a list of curriculum-related trips,'' said Virginia Bradshaw, assistant superintendent for instructional services, who is now in charge of approving field trips. ''Any trip not on that list would have to come to my office.''

From now on, Larke said, social trips to Six Flags, Funsville in Martinez and the Carowinds theme park near Charlotte, N.C., must be taken on weekends at the schools' expense.

''I think the time could be better spent,'' Larke said. ''We're not going to approve a field trip to just any place. Schools will have to list the reasons for taking the trip and how it is tied to curriculum. A lot of trips on the list now will be denied.''

Some principals said they ask teachers to make sure there's a good reason for each field trip.

For example, children from John Milledge Elementary School are taken to a restaurant once a year to practice their manners, Principal Gloria Mohney said.

''A lot of times with the (pre-kindergartners), we take them out as a group to work on staying together,'' Mohney said. ''They are sometimes taken to the mall in December or around Easter to see the decorations. We feel it's good for the kids to get out and learn to behave outside of school. Some don't have the opportunity to go on trips outside of school.''

Tobacco Road Elementary School Principal Florida Reed said, ''I definitely base all of our trips on curriculum. But I can see where trips to the market would be related to curriculum. For instance, if they were studying food groups and the cost of food.

''As far as trips to the beach, students can talk about what they see,'' she said. ''Some students have never had the opportunity to see the beach. But (trips to the supermarket and the beach) are ones I wouldn't approve because there are so many others that are directly related to curriculum.

''When people see trips to restaurants or supermarkets, they have a tendency to think they are social,'' Reed added. ''But there are so many experiences children can learn from all trips.''

Cynthia Flowers said money is the main reason her son's school, Windsor Springs Elementary, hasn't taken many field trips.